Prep for Sunday

I'm doing the family communion service at Milton Keynes Village. The theme is the Transfiguration - so I have transformed some figures - or rather disguised some celebs...
Here are my posters. Any guesses?

All will be revealed on Sunday...

A Day with Bishop John

Once a year, the Bishop of Oxford gathers all the Lay Chairs and Area Deans together for a day together. This was the second such day with Bishop John down in Geralds Cross.

Bishop John spent the morning discussing his new vision document with us - now rechristened Living Faith after the influential evangelism vision day organised in the summer.

The key to this vision is that it must not be seen as a list of things to do, but a helpful tool for deaneries and parishes as they work out their own strategic plans and priorities. John spoke about the need to paint different pictures using a common pallet of primary colours. Each setting will generate a different creativity - based on the same key themes.

These are:

• Sustaining the Sacred Centre
• Making Disciples
• Making a Difference in the World
• Creating Vibrant Christian Communities
• Shaping Confident Collaborative Leadership

In our small group we discussed how this might be reflected in a process:

1. Reflect on how existing practices can be mapped onto the five themes
2. Consider what could be done to develop work in each of the five key themes

In other words, the Bishop's vision could (and probably should) be used as helpful input for an ongoing visionary/strategic process rather than be seen as another job or programme to be introduced. If deaneries and parishes are already in a planning cycle then this vision will probably be helpful. If not, then they should concentrate on developing some change muscles rather than simply try to keep the bishop happy.

In the afternoon we discussed women bishops and the troubles of the Anglican communion. There was encouragement from the floor for patience and time to listen to all view points...

Bishop Stephen put forward his new scheme. This is an idea to develop a system for Mystery Worshippers in a Deanery. Apparently he's done it before with some interesting results. The basic idea is that each church agrees to send out church members to visit as many of the other churches in the deanery as possible. At the end of the year the results are collated and churches are given feedback about how a random visitor found the experience...

This sounds like a great idea and could be really valuable. As Stephen points out, visitors remember:

1. the welcome they receive
2. the quality of the music
3. and whether the sermon is OK or boring

These are all things that churches can work on and could do with feedback on. Deaneries have been asked to say if they would like to take part in a pilot. I think MK Deanery should go for it!

All in all this was a good day. Nothing life changing, but worth doing. In a busy life with people spread out over three counties, it's very good for people to get together from time to time - even if it's only a few of us... There were comments about another diocesan (or archdeaconry) conference, so perhaps we might do this on a bigger scale in 2010...

Joint Councils

I've been in the house all day today while the painters have been painting the window frames and the ADT man has been servicing the alarm system. This gave me an opportunity to finally get going on some writing I need to finish by Friday... I've managed to do most of it although I still need to come up with an all-age talk...

One of the problems with today's plan was that all the windows and doors needed to be left open, so the house was cold and there was a howling gale blowing through. It was good to shut everything up once they'd gone.

This evening I attended my first All Saints' and St Mary's council meetings post-sabbatical. For those who don't know we set up a very nice arrangement between the churches which basically means that we meet together for ministerial and parish business and then share coffee before splitting into separate groups. Each church has me for half the evening before we join together at the end for final prayers and "circle time". This final time of sharing is often valuable as each person is asked to mention one thing that they will take away from the evening. This has enormous value to people from both churches as learning is shared and they inspire each other.

This arrangement was originally planned as a way of saving time but it has interesting consequences in terms of cross-pollination and seems to generate a great deal of energy.

This was a good evening, as always. The St Mary's people are looking at ways to open up their building for prayer and turn fund-raising into positive community mobilisation. The All Saints' team had a good conversation about pastoral care and the need to encourage more people to be consciously caring.

There was also a discussion about worship leaders taking on "padwan learners" - who they would nurture as intercessors. All good stuff!

A good evening but an odd one for me since I'm not sure where I fit into all this...

The days other highlight was the arrival in to post of my sabbatical notes, all nicely bound. It's nice to see this as a finished product.

Back to the evenings...

Tonight was a fairly familiar (pre-sabbatical) evening: two meetings on one night! I met with the Archdeacon and Will and Heather from Woughton to talk about the new appointment there. I then popped in on the All Saints Worship Team. As part of this meeting they discussed my sabbatical report. They raised the issue of collective leadership and gave themselves a big (deserved) pat on the back for being quite good at it. I pointed out that the problem with collective leadership and collaborative ministry is that those in authority can quickly take them away if they choose to. The LSM group has reflected on a number of stories about churches who had been doing well until a change of "leader" produced rapid (and undesirable) change. The challenge for ASL and the Watling Valley will be to find ways of maintaining collaboration through future changes of clergy... This issue is the central motivation for finding a more structural way of supporting collaborative ministry through LSM or another appropriate "scheme".

Leighton Buzzard

We went to Leighton Buzzard today for their 9:15am Matins service - which felt incredibly early after two months of sabbatical. We had decided to visit our friend James who took us to church with him. The girls enjoyed the Sunday Club and Isla appreciated a full choir. It was a good morning.
It struck me that the resources of a market town like LB enable them to produce a high quality "performance" - including choral music which their own notice sheet described as beautiful. This is a church which deserves to be "mystery worshipped" because it stands or falls on the basis of its public face...
This, of course, is in stark contrast to some of the smaller rural churches we've been visiting in which the "performance" is never going to be quite so slick but the depth of community is lifegiveing...
You can't really compare churches. They're all prescious to God...

False Walls

We went to Bourn today to go to church with some of our friends. It was an all age service - Patterns for Worship with sermon and children's activities. The pianist was brilliant - and delivered the sermon - his third. The girls gave this service a high score, largely, I suspect, because they had friends with them. This was a good service, but the girls' reaction confirms my suspicion that it's people and relationships that ultimately make a piece of worship work...
Which brings me to Wimpole Hall, where we had a picnic in the afternoon. There's a wonderful folly on the hill, which we really wanted to visit. After various attempts we succeeded. The great thing about it is that behind the stone façade, it's made out of bog-standard red bricks - all neatly hidden away. On one level, I was disappointed by this blatant bit of cheating, but I also enjoyed the brazen trickery of it!
Worship is a bit like the Wimpole folly, it can be made to look perfect, with all the right bits put in place, but the real measure of worship is found behind the scenes in the structure that holds it all together - the Church. The quality of the community is crucial, which is why I believe in the local church as a force for good. It doesn't need money, or massive resources to change the world. All it needs is people who love...

Enlarging All Member Ministry

We've always been keen on lay ministry in the Watling Valley, but today was a high point even for us! The Mothering Sunday Service at St Mary's was prepared and lead by the young people from start to finish. The two worship leaders were simply stunning "front men", the drama (a Mike Geaney special called Spooky Sunday) was performed with Oscar winning performances and every possible role in the service was taken on by our young people. They received a much deserved round of applause at the end! It was a service that could have taught many "professionals" a thing or two...

The key point I take away is that worship so often lives when it comes from the people themselves. Professional worship leaders can give slick performances, but you can't beat the depth and feeling that you get when the worship is "owned" by the people who have the biggest stake in making it real. Yes, some things went wrong, and there were things that could have been improved, but who cares because it was a living piece of worship that everyone appreciated!

Sunday

I didn't sleep well - I never do before an 8 O'clock - so I got up and finished off the work on the Baptist Service for All Saints'. The idea is to have a standard card for Baptist style services, which gives the general structure, and then to have little book of prayers that ministers can use when they lead worship. This would be particularly useful for those who from a very different tradition. I'm quite pleased with the result. Whether our baptist members appreciate it or not, only time will tell.... (I'm guessing not...)

The 8 O'clock service was small in numbers today, which suprised me because the car park was full. Did everyone take two cars? Or is our space being borrowed?

At 10:30am I introduced the Viewpoints Course at All Saints'. I'd planned to do this for a while, but it's alway different when you get into church. Not sure whether I communicated what needed to be said or not, but there were some signs of interest... I don't think the readings I picked were quite right, but I have some ideas for alternatives...

Took Iona to see Aladin in the evening. Great fun - particularly when the "Five Toilet Roles" got stuck in the lighting rig... Bradley Walsh on top form. He seems to have built up quite an MK fan base, indicated by big blokey blokes shouting out, "We love you Bradley!" To be fair, without his mucking about, it would have been fairly pedestian, which shows what a good front man can achieve...

Flat Pack

This morning, I've been working with the girls to assemble two new bed side cabinets - nice pieces of Ikea Flatpack. They had a whale of a time - lots of nice hammering and liberal use of an electirc screw driver...
Flatpack is wonderful stuff - all the bits you need and clear instructions (!) - with reasonable experience, a bit of common sense, and occassional brute force you can build something useful, practical and (if you're lucky) fairly solid...
Planning worship can be a bit like designing flatpack furniture - for an "overseeing minister". In Slough I used to write all the Christmas Services in November and give everyone the "materials" in good time. Last December I produced all the "bits" for the Covenant Service (February) and dished them out before New Year. People need all the elements in good time so that they can then assemble the event - and add some creative flourishes which require a bit of forthought...
Long term worship planning is not being obsesive - it's about equiping people to assemble flatpack - with style!

Being Awake on the Second Sunday of Advent

I rarely sleep before an 8:00am service. It's partly because I'm worried about getting up in time, and partly because I'm worried about waking everyone else up... I was woken early at 3:00am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. This gave me some extra time to contemplate three very different services - which required three very different sermons...
(Last night Isla and I calculated that I have preached between 60 and 90 "Advent" sermons in Watling Valley... How do I say something new?)

Services this Morning:

8:00am - Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) - All Saints'
It was still fairly dark when I headed out to All Saints'. The 8 O'clock congregation have become a close knit group over the last couple of years - Ann and Roger have been particularly key in building relationships - providing a good example of a "Care Circle". The closeness of this community was demonstrated during Tony Knight's recent illness, death and funeral.
This morning's service was quiet (appropriate to the season) and I preached a fairly somber sermon... (Not one of my best, but gave me a chance to explore some themes...)

9:00am - Holy Communion - Holy Cross
A very different service at Holy Cross. In theory, this is the quiet communion service which takes place before "all-age activities" at 10:45am. In reality this is a fairly all age communion service with children and a wide range of people in the congregation... Christmas decorations were up and there were a number of visitors. This service therefore required a fairly high energy all-inclusive approach which I hope I was able to deliver. This service felt positive and fun - and I thinks the congregation were in good spirits...

10:30am - Holy Communion - All Saints
By the time I got to All Saints' I was completely exausted - mentally and physically - not only because of the day, but also because of the week and the long crisis and project filled term. I'm finding it difficult to cope with three morning services these days - must be getting old...
I had decided to try a more challenging sermon here, wanting to respond to critisisms from certain members of the congregation. To be honest, I was too tired, time was too tight, there were too many things going on, and I'm really not sure this is the right time or place.
Couldn't finish the service within the hour - which is a disaster for visitors and community development. Not a good morning...
I've tended to think of ASL10:30 as a "seeker service" where the emphasis is on the visitors and fringe members - on baptism families, wedding couples and those who drop in from time to time. These people need brief, engaging, simple but relevant sermons that communicate more by the way they are delivered than by their content. I can just about deliver this if I hype myself up on adreneline and get on with it. Content based expository sermons targeted at church members just don't work - and I haven't got the time and energy to write or deliver them. I think I'll write this morning off as an experiment that was never going to work and stick to the "seeker" agenda. I believe in it - and I can just about pull it off...
The question that remains is how to encourage the congregation to meet their own needs through the other opportunities on offer...

Night out with Crowded HouseWe don't get out much. This was our one night out this term and we were determined to enjoy it! Duke Special and Crowded House at Wembly Arena! What a night! Good to see DS although they were relatively tame compared to their wild performance at Greenbelt. Crowded House were phenomenal - they kept playing till 11:00pm! Great gig, great evening!

They'll soon be going back to New Zealand - a place very much on my mind since we have family there and Local Shared Ministry is big news... Shame it's so far away...

Sunday 25th November

7:30am - 9:00am Service at All Saints (ASL +1.5)
Really didn't want to get up this morning (hadn't slept well). Woke at 7:20am. Threw clothes on and ran for it. Service seemed to go well. Tony's wife Pauline and Son Michael were there - following his funeral in the week. Was good to see them and seemed like a good way of marking the day...
9:00am - 11:00am Service at St Mary's (SMS +2)
Unexpected Baptism, building still in chaos, no amp - but heating was working. Love the new tiles in the loo - which still lacks a loo - but it's going to look absolutely phenomenal when it's finished! Building work still on target (ish). Beginning to pulg celebration in January.
Turned out to be a good high energy service. Good connection with Baptism family. Very pleased.
11:00am - 12:00noon Service at Servant King (SKF +1)
Enjoyed preaching at Servant King. One of those services that really gelled. The Sunday Club were building roundabouts for the Christmas servicese - look forward to seeing the results...
12:00pm - 2:30pm Meeting with St Mary's 11:00 (SMS +2.5)
Very good meeting. People are feeling a bit shaky about Richard's departure, but there's a real sense of vision for the future. If this group can get it together, this congreagtion could really grow...
2:30pm - 5:00pm Service Planning Meeting (WVEP +2.5)
Planning servicese from here to July 2008. All now updated on http://www.wvep.org/
Also spent time planning Easter - always a tricky discussion but we came to a reasonable common mind... Good group - really makes a difference...

Went home for tea after the SPM - Organic Roast Chicken, mushy sweatcorn, rubarb crumble and custard - well worth waiting for. Thanks Isla! Always good to be home!

Total Hours Worked: 9.5
Hours Worked for WVEP: 2.5
Hours Worked for ASL 1.5
Hours Worked for SMS 4.5